


Little Pieces

by BlackEyedGirl



Category: Firefly, Psych
Genre: Angst, Crossover, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Porn Battle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-25
Updated: 2010-07-25
Packaged: 2017-10-10 19:37:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackEyedGirl/pseuds/BlackEyedGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River met Shawn in the Academy. It's years before she sees him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> For Porn Battle X for the prompts: _connection, crazy_.
> 
> **Content Note:** References the harm caused by the Alliance's experimentation, and the impact on both River and Shawn's mental states.

When she sees him again, he's hiding underneath Serenity and his friend is trying to pull him out. She walks to him on her bare feet, curling her toes into the sand. He looks at her upside-down and says, "River."

There's a terrible noise and when she can hear properly there are guns everywhere and the boy is hiding again and Simon is trying to pull her back. Trying to make her safe, because her name is a weapon to be used against her but that isn't what's happening here. "Sssh, sssh," she tells him. She creeps to Shawn and takes his hand. "Ssh," she says. "Safe now." She covers up his eyes with her hands and says, "Sssh."

The Captain's hand is twitchy on his gun. He says her name and she wonders why he's allowed the use of it. "River," he says. "Want to explain this?"

"Shawn's special," she says. "He knew me in the other place." She can hear all of the little click-click-clicks from the others, her family. Special's dangerous too, dangerous like her, but they won't shoot him just because he knows her name.

Shawn's friend says, "Damn right he's special." He looks like a smile that's forgotten how to be itself. Like Simon, a little bit, all frozen into shapes - a machina who has lost all other function. He says, "We need transport."

Jayne asks, "He see things too? Cause we got one of those and I don't see as how we need another. Fortune telling's all well and good but we've got enough Alliance trouble as it is."

Shawn stands up with her. He shakes his head. "Not the future. Everything else. What's really there."

"I don't get it," Jayne says. "Anybody can see what's right in front of them."

Shawn's friend says, "He just sees everything. Everyone else, they just see pieces but Shawn-."

"No," Shawn interrupts. "Gus, no. Everyone else sees the whole thing and I see the pieces. All the little tiny puzzle pieces and they don't fit together right and sometimes I know why but not always and I can't just let them go out of focus they're always-."

"Shawn, hey, hey," Gus says. "It's all right." He pulls his shoulders up and says, "So, can we get a ride or not? I've got the money, if that's what you're worried about. And there's double for the hassle if we get any."

Shawn's eyes are closed again and River stands in front of him, humming. She says, "Daddy's not here."

"He got me out," Shawn whispers. "Called Gus and said, 'Run, don't come back.' It's not safe, never safe. We're running away." He laughs. "'Don't come back.' He can be really dramatic sometimes." River sees him paper over the cracks. Shawn smiles at Kaylee. "Hey. I like your ship. Did you build in the compensation in the stabilisers yourself?"

Kaylee smiles tentatively back. "Now, how'd you know about a thing like…?"

"I see the parts that don't fit."

Mal sighs and the whole world shakes with the noise of it. The voice of God, in their small universe. He looks at Gus. "All upfront. We'll do our best to get you where you're headed - you try not to cause us any trouble. We understand each other?"

Gus nods. "We're _really_, really, not looking for any more trouble. Right, Shawn?" Shawn nods but River can see – Gus can see too – that it's instinct rather than attention. He's hearing other things in his head. There are too many distractions here, and the guns are not the largest of his concerns. She can see his mind jump from the birds, to the tear in the hem of Jayne's shirt, to Mal's hands uncurling and Simon tapping his foot.

River takes Shawn's hand and feels him push things back into place. Focus, she knows, is the difficult part. How not to see it all at once. His fingers entwine with hers. "Come with me," she says, and pulls him behind her into the ship.

The others will look for them, later, but she knows all of the hiding places.

Shawn kissed her first. Her first kiss. Not his, but the first touch there for either of them. He had tasted of medicine and she tasted of blood but there had been a moment where she stopped hearing the other voices. Focus. He closed his eyes to kiss her and she knows all of the whys.

They crouch together now in the dark. "You can open your eyes," she says, and he does. There are starlight's worth of gleaming coming in from the cracks, but only the touch of reflections on metal. Nothing more. The engines start and Shawn jumps with the shudder of it. He bumps against her, his hands warm through her thin dress. They had been cold before, when he was more there and she less. Everything is reversed.

She sees things. Locked up together in the dark of her small bunk, the press of him against her, learning all of her little pieces. More firsts. He will learn all of her and see the parts which don't fit. She will show him how to dance around those places. He remembers everything and cannot know how to forget. She will give him new memory, and he will help her make the puzzles fit together properly. In the darkness he will make her a reflection and they will twist together to cover up the cracks.

Now his eyes are open though she cannot see the shine of them. He pushes towards her, saying her name. His kisses taste of blood and hers of the sky. "It's all right," she tells him. "Sssh. We're going to fly."


End file.
